At present, the Tsai administration has given up active support of gay marriage and two competing referendums on gay marriage are set to take place, with Christian anti-gay groups hoping that a negative result on the referendum will overturn the ruling of the Council of Grand Justices. On the other hand, members of the LGBTQ community are also campaigning in order to secure a result on the referendum which results in the legalization of gay marriage.

Another strong showing of force by the marriage equality movement took place on November 18th, with 100,000 attending a rally and concert held on Ketagalan Boulevard. This demonstration was unexpectedly large, with few expecting such numbers for a demonstration called on an extremely short notice. The demonstration featured numerous celebrity speakers and performers. Though no similar demonstration seems set to take place as organized by opponents of marriage equality, concerns still are present that pro-marriage equality groups are outgunned by the vast resources of anti-marriage equality groups, however.

Anti-nuclear concert held in Liberty Plaza on November 10th. Photo credit: 全國廢核行動平台/Facebook

Other demonstrations have focused on environmental issues. Three marches, which are bipartisan in nature, took place this month against growing problems of air pollution in Taiwan. These took place in Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Taichung, each drawing thousands. An anti-nuclear concert also took place in Liberty Plaza in Taipei on November 10th, as organized by anti-nuclear groups. Namely, questions up for referendum later this month include several questions related to nuclear energy, such as whether to scrap the provision of Taiwanese law currently legislating that Taiwan will need to transition away from nuclear energy by 2025, or whether Taiwan should import food from areas affected by the 2011 Fukushima disaster. It is also up for the vote whether Taiwan should reduce the amount of thermal power Taiwan uses and whether Taiwan should stop building coal-fired power plants or not.

Lastly, with concerns about the return of Chinese influence in Taiwan in the form of unexpectedly popular KMT politicians such as Han Kuo-yu and the increasing shift towards the pan-Blue camp by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-Je, a rally against Chinese influence took place on November 18th in Kaohsiung. This rally was primarily organized by the Radical Party, a Third Force party which ran as part of the Taiwan Solidarity Union in 2016 but is now operating independently, and which has its strongest base in southern Taiwan.

Rally against Chinese influence on November 18th in Kaohsiung. Photo credit: 基進黨（基進側翼）/Facebook

The salient issues of 2018 elections, then, as expressed in protests, would seem to be Taiwanese sovereignty, gay marriage, nuclear energy, air pollution, and Chinese influence. Of these, Taiwanese sovereignty in the form of the Olympics referendum and gay marriage have managed to have the strongest mobilizations. One also observes that anti-gay groups and pro-nuclear groups have not had any large-scale protests, whereas marriage equality groups and anti-nuclear groups were able to successfully mobilize supporters for organized protests.

One will have to see whether this is reflected in the ultimate results of the various referendums. As also observed in the uptick of protests before any set of elections in Taiwan, recent protests are further examples of the dynamic between protests and electoral politics in Taiwan by which one often naturally flows into the other. A keen awareness is present among activists that electoral politics are a way to concretely realize the demands of street-based social movement protests, as well as that protests also serve the use of heightening public attention regarding salient political issues.

Brian Hioe was one of the founding editors of New Bloom. He is a freelance writer on social movements and politics, and occasional translator. A New York native and Taiwanese-American, he has an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University and graduated from New York University with majors in History, East Asian Studies, and English Literature. He was Democracy and Human Rights Service Fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy from 2017 to 2018.
丘琦欣，創建破土的編輯之一，專於撰寫社會運動和政治的自由作家偶而亦從事翻譯工作。他是出生於紐約的台裔美人。他自哥倫比亞大學畢業，是亞洲語言及文化科系的碩士，同時擁有紐約大學的歷史，東亞研究及英文文學三項學士學位。

About New Bloom

New Bloom is an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in wake of the Sunflower Movement. We seek to put local voices in touch with international discourse, beginning with Taiwan.